Roundup: More awful electoral reform questions

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Another day, another meeting of the electoral reform committee, which produced yet more kinds of awful. Marc Mayrand, the outgoing Chief Electoral Officer, gave a few facts to MPs, like the fact that a referendum (if the enabling legislation were changed) would cost about $300 million to run, or the fact that Elections Canada could be ready in time for a 2019 election under a new system, provided that everything was settled by May of next year. (Note: This may be overly optimistic considering the constitutional questions raised by some kinds of voting systems). But some of the worst moments were around questions raised to both Mayrand and his predecessor, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, about things like online voting.

No. No, no, no, no, no. The problem with online voting has zero to do with encryption technology and everything to do with the secrecy of the ballot, and anyone who confuses the two needs a smack upside the head. The secrecy of the ballot is ensuring that nobody sees who you are voting for, so that you can’t be rewarded or punished for it, you know, like in the era of “rum bottle politics.” And you can’t ensure the secrecy of the ballot with online voting. “But what about mail-in ballots?” you ask. Well, the proportion of those is so small that it’s a compromise that we have to make. Online voting is not comparable.

https://twitter.com/inklesspw/status/751122720520282113

This particular intervention is complete nonsense. Does David Christopherson not take the phone calls of his constituents unless they can prove that they voted NDP? Does he not present their petitions in Parliament? Oh, so he does? Then they don’t “get nothing,” and it’s fundamentally wrong for anyone to suggest otherwise, and proof that they don’t know what it means to be an MP.

And then there’s this specious and utterly wrong nonsense, because it’s fundamentally dishonest. Do you know how many voters it took to elect Elizabeth May? 37,000 votes. We have ridings, where people decide who gets to sit in each seat. We don’t apportion seats based on the number of votes they receive, and to try and present it as such in order to prove some point is basically lying. And yes, this is the kinds of discourse that this process is bringing out, so well done everyone.

And then there are the editorials and op-eds. Christina Spencer is not at all impressed with how this committee has gotten started (and I can’t say that I blame her – it’s been pretty awful). Kelly McParland thinks the Liberals are counting on apathy in order to get their preferred electoral system through (hence their reluctance for a referendum), while Michael Den Tandt thinks the insistence of “focus grouping” their electoral reform consultations is really a shell game of “trust us” while they push ranked ballots through. Colin Horgan suggests that the “electoral reform toolkit” is an attempt at making the conversation appear to be more grassroots.

Good reads:

  • Plans to lower interprovincial trade barriers won’t include alcohol sales, because of a pending court appeal from that New Brusnwick case.
  • The Supreme Court has put the case of a suspected Nazi war criminal’s deportation back into cabinet’s hands. (But it’s an “activist court,” remember).
  • The CRA is going after $58 million in unreported “incentives” given to pharmacists.
  • Agriculture Canada has questioned the credibility of that WHO report about the cancer risk from processed meats.
  • Mounties have been refusing to do “Red Serge” community activities as a protest over working conditions.
  • Meanwhile, former AG Sheila Fraser has been appointed as a special advisor to look into how harassment complaints have been handled within the RCMP.
  • The permanent Senate appointment process is now up and running, and there is a four week window for applications for the remaining vacancies.
  • Manitoba has now signed onto the CPP expansion plans (not that it mattered, as the threshold had been passed).
  • The NCC backs the renovation of 24 Sussex among a number of other projects they are exploring in the capital.
  • Jason Kenney laid out his five-point plan to unify the right in Alberta. He also plans to keep his MP paycheque until October.
  • The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ takes on the statement that marijuana decriminalization wouldn’t stop youth use or stop organized crime.
  • Colby Cosh takes the idea of Jason Kenney as PC leader in Alberta through the party’s murky history.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at Trudeau’s use of photo ops so far in his time in government.

Scott Brison thinks that Atlantic Canadians need to stop using the term “Come From Aways” as they need immigration and investment while their demographics decline.